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When we realised that we needed someone to take charge of our weekly playlist due to coinciding vacations, we knew there were several people we could turn to for help. One that stand out for his insatiable appetite for new music would be perfect, someone who can present a little slice of their current audio passions with the same love and attention to detail that we put into the playlists. So, we asked Tomas Lindberg to step in this week.

He’s known to most as the frontman for At The Gates and Disfear, but also known to some as the enthusiastic Swedish man who is down the front, banging his head and raising his fists at many a Roadburn performance.

So, without further ado, here is a list of Tompa’s current top tunes.

Uran – Emp (Höga Nord Rekords)

Henrik Palm – Missoula (Fetish Records)

Craft – Darkness Falls (Season Of Mist)

Black Salvation – In a Casket’s Ride (Relapse Records)

The Skull Defekts – A Brief History Of Rhythm, Dub, Life And Death (Thrill Jockey)

We’re thrilled that the Essential Sounds playlist is already at almost 400 subscribers; we hope you enjoyed the first week’s playlist! If you’re yet to subscribe, please click through and do so! We’ll continue to bring you new playlists every week with songs that are inspiring us, brand new releases and a smattering of old favourites.

This week kicks off with some Septic Tank savagery – and gives us the perfect opportunity to wish a (belated) happy birthday to close friend of Roadburn, Lee Dorrian, who turned 50 this past week!

Also included are tracks by Thou (who have recently announced a whole bunch of new releases), Nothing (who graced us with their presence at Roadburn back in 2014), Mirror Queen (who are showing us a whole new side to themselves), and of course the irrepressible Ghost! It was seven years ago that Ghost stepped on to a Roadburn stage and a lot has happened in that time!

If you want to seek out these sounds somewhere other than Spotify, here’s the details you’ll need:

Each week, we’ll collate a playlist of songs that we’re listening to at Roadburn HQ and put them into playlist form via Spotify. Not all the songs will be new, not all of them will be from artists that have played Roadburn or will in the future; consider it a glimpse into what’s inspiring us right now.

If you like what you hear, please subscribe to the playlist – we’ll be updating it regularly! Click here or see below to check out the inaugural Roadburn: Essential Sounds playlist.

Our first ever Roadburn: Essential Sounds play list kicks off with Soft Kill – a track taken from their recently released album, Savior. Swiftly following is Our Raw Heart – a new track from Yob, which will appear on their new album of the same name, which is due out a week today. Welcome back Yob!

We hope these playlists will highlight new bands, and reinvigorate your love for old favourites. It’s been fun to put together – same time next week?

If you want to seek out the releases elsewhere – here’s what’s featured:

As has become tradition, with the invaluable help of Marcel Van De Vondervoort (Torture Garden Studio) and his team, we have captured the audio from many of the bands that played at Roadburn 2018. Once again we have teamed up with VPRO 3voor12, Holland’s major cultural network, to bring you these streams in all their glory.

Whether you’re reliving your own personal highlights or discovering new music, we hope you’ll enjoy this throwback to those sunny days in April when some true magic occurred in Tilburg.

A huge thanks to Frank and Hollie at Metal Injection who came to Roadburn this year – and created this video documenting their experience with us.

They take a look at what makes Roadburn such a unique experience: the hardships, the changes, the curation process, and more. Including interviews with 2018 curator Jacob Bannon of Converge, festival organizer / creator, Walter Hoeijmakers, and many more!

We have already started to lay the foundations for next year’s festival, set for April 11-14 at the 013 venue in Tilburg, The Netherlands. We continue our quest for mind-altering, life-changing music, and we hope you will join us in welcoming the following artists to Roadburn 2019:

Heilung, who will bring their shamanic, amplified history from early medieval Northern Europe to the 2019 festival.

Louise Lemón will be preaching her death gospel to the gathered masses.

With another edition of Roadburn done and dusted, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the past four days. Every year our expectations are surpassed, and this year was no different.

The geographical footprint of the festival may have changed a bit, with the introduction of new venues – the Koepelhal and Hall of Fame — but the heart of Roadburn has stayed the same. We are driven by passion, creativity and diversity – only this year we had a little bit more room to let those things breathe. This still felt like a party for 4,000+ of our nearest and dearest friends and collaborators.

We are truly honoured to have played host to two groundbreaking comissioned collaborations in the form of The Waste of Space Orchestra and Sól án varma -we are grateful that you all came along for the ride and put your faith in both us and the musicians.

To have 26 West Coast musicans invade the festival en masse – bringing not only the San Diego weather but their Oceanside vibe added a whole new dimension to the festival – especially when uniting with their Japanese counterparts.

That our audience is openminded and openhearted to welcome acts as diverse as Zola Jesus, Ex Eye, Mizmor, Converge, Igorrr, Sangre de Muerdago, Earthless, Damo Suzuki, Cult of Luna & Julie Christmas, Bell Witch, Godspeed You! Black Emperor… it spurs us on and reminds us why we do this. The special, once in a lifetime sets are overwhelming – even for us.

It will take quite some time to digest everything we have witnessed, but we want to thank each and everyone of you for the part you play in making Roadburn what it was this weekend: a truly phenomenal experience. We all play equal parts in making Roadburn a success.

–Walter, Becky & everyone at Roadburn.

P.s. Mark your calendars for 11-14 April 2019, because we’ll be doing it all again then.

Live from Weirdo Canyon in Tilburg – Issue #4 of the Weirdo Canyon Dispatch is out now. We’ve got 1000 copies printed for Roadburners on-site at the 013, but you can DOWNLOAD THE PDF to get yours anywhere!

Check out a review from Saturday by José Carlos Santos, awesome photography by Paul Verhagen,Niels Vinck & JJ Koczan, Kim Kelly hails to Icelandic Black Metal, continuing with the invasion from the north Guido Segers takes a look at todays Vánagandr performance, plus much more including exclusive artwork by Richard “Robotmonster” Schouten.

Live from Weirdo Canyon in Tilburg – Issue #3 of the Weirdo Canyon Dispatch is out now. We’ve got 1,250 copies printed for Roadburners on-site at the 013, but you can DOWNLOAD THE PDF to get yours anywhere!

Check out a review from yesterday by Daniel Pietersen, awesome photography by Paul Verhagen & Niels Vinck, José Carlos Santos walks us through the illustrious history of Converge, Cheryl Carter looks into the Bell Witch mirror, while Ben Handelman gives us an overview of how the Black Metal and Brews concept was born, plus exclusive collaboration artwork between Costin Chioreanu and Cavum that really is not to be missed!